“There’s a cool little culinary scene down there with a handful of restaurants and chefs that’s sort of a New Baja kind of cuisine,” he says. “You eat at these places and you wouldn’t think that it’s a Mexican restaurant. It’s food that invokes the coast and fresh seafood as well as the ranch with grilled and charred things, plus a lot of fresh produce, using whatever is available in the region you’re in.”

Krauss says he’s trying to invoke that same sort of feel at Salsipuedes, where he’ll often be combining land and sea elements into the same dish: oysters with chorizo; pork jaw with uni; rabbit escabeche with charred scallop. Krauss is also strongly influenced—via instructors at the San Diego Culinary Institute—by the clean, simple flavor profile of Japanese cuisine. So, diners will see elements such as yuzu ponzu, tempura sea beans, salmon roe, and chicken katsu throughout the menu.

Finally, Krauss says he hopes to capture the lightness and freshness of New Baja cuisine through an emphasis on simplicity. That’s an approach that was honed even further by Christopher Kostow at the Restaurant at Meadowood, where Krauss worked for the last year and a half.

“It’s something I learned at Meadowood: It’s not about what I can add, but what can I take away to get to essence of what’s on the plate,” he says. “Identify what the star of the show is on each dish, and then use only a few ingredients to enhance that, as opposed to muddling the flavors.”

Dishes are mostly meant to be shared and will likely range from $5–10 for the smaller items to $15–$20 for larger dishes. Food will be complemented by a “coastal, maritime” list of natural wines from around the world, plus mostly local NorCal beers and cider.